Bananaman is a British animated comedy series which ran from 3 October 1983 to 15 April 1986. It was based on the comic strip character Bananaman and each of the show's roughly five-minute episodes featured the voices of The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie).[2][3]
| Bananaman | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Steve Bright |
| Starring |
|
| Theme music composer | Dave Cooke |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 40[1] |
| Production | |
| Producer | Trevor Bond |
| Running time | 5 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | 3 October 1983 – 4 March 1986 |
Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge (rather than Eric Wimp), had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader.[4][5]
"This is 29 Acacia Road. And this is Eric, the schoolboy who leads an amazing double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs. Eric is Bananaman, ever alert for the call to action!"
When Danger Mouse first aired on Nickelodeon in America, Bananaman was shown after it to round out the show to a half hour.
Cast
edit- Tim Brooke-Taylor as Eric
- Graeme Garden as Bananaman
- Bill Oddie as Crow
- Jill Shilling as Fiona
Written by Bernie Kay. Produced by Trevor Bond. Directed by Terry Ward.
Series guide
edit- Series 1: 3 October[6] – 11 November 1983[7] - 12 episodes
- Series 2: 4 October[8] – 19 December 1984[9] - 13 episodes
- Series 3: 7 January – 15 April 1986[10] - 15 episodes
"Memory Lane" episode from series 2 was not broadcast until June 1988 but was made alongside series 2.
Episodes
editSeries 1 (1983)
edit| No. overall | Series no. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" | 3 October 1983 |
| 2 | 2 | "The Big Breakout" | 7 October 1983 |
| 3 | 3 | "Ice Station Zero" | 10 October 1983 |
| 4 | 4 | "The Alien Planet" | 14 October 1983 |
| 5 | 5 | "The Kidnap Caper" | 17 October 1983 |
| 6 | 6 | "House on Hangman's Hill" | 20 October 1983 |
| 7 | 7 | "Destination Danger" | 24 October 1983 |
| 8 | 8 | "Wall of Death" | 27 October 1983 |
| 9 | 9 | "Jaws of Steel" | 31 October 1983 |
| 10 | 10 | "Banana Kid" | 4 November 1983 |
| 11 | 11 | "Auntie's Back in Town" | 7 November 1983 |
| 12 | 12 | "Tunnel of Terror" | 11 November 1983 |
Series 2 (1984)
edit| No. overall | Series no. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 1 | "Mystery at the Old Mine" | 4 October 1984 |
| 14 | 2 | "Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas" | 11 October 1984 |
| 15 | 3 | "Trouble at the Mill" | 18 October 1984 |
| 16 | 4 | "The Web of Evil" | 25 October 1984 |
| 17 | 5 | "The Mummy's Curse" | 1 November 1984 |
| 18 | 6 | "The Night Patrol" | 8 November 1984 |
| 19 | 7 | "Fog of Fear" | 15 November 1984 |
| 20 | 8 | "A Tank Full of Trouble" | 22 November 1984 |
| 21 | 9 | "Double Trouble" | 29 November 1984 |
| 22 | 10 | "The Last Banana" | 5 December 1984 |
| 23 | 11 | "Intergalactic Olympics" | 12 December 1984 |
| 24 | 12 | "Memory Lane" | 15 June 1988 |
| 25 | 13 | "The Final Orbit" | 19 December 1984 |
Series 3 (1986)
edit| No. overall | Series no. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | 1 | "Disaster at Devil's Cove" | 7 January 1986 |
| 27 | 2 | "Night of the Nerks" | 14 January 1986 |
| 28 | 3 | "The Snowman Cometh" | 21 January 1986 |
| 29 | 4 | "Pirate TV Station" | 28 January 1986 |
| 30 | 5 | "Battle of the Bridge" | 4 February 1986 |
| 31 | 6 | "Harbour of Lost Ships" | 11 February 1986 |
| 32 | 7 | "Visibility Zero" | 18 February 1986 |
| 33 | 8 | "Battle of the Century" | 25 February 1986 |
| 34 | 9 | "The Perils of Ping Pong" | 4 March 1986 |
| 35 | 10 | "The Great Air Race" | 11 March 1986 |
| 36 | 11 | "Cavern of the Lost" | 18 March 1986 |
| 37 | 12 | "Clown Capers" | 25 March 1986 |
| 38 | 13 | "Banana Junction" | 1 April 1986 |
| 39 | 14 | "The Crown Jewel Caper" | 8 April 1986 |
| 40 | 15 | "Operation Total" | 15 April 1986 |
Reception
editBananaman was a popular cartoon and is one of the most well-known British superheroes. Taken from the DC Thomson comic entitled Nutty, it was made into a TV animated series of 40 five-minute episodes by Terry Ward of Flicks Films Ltd.[11]
References
edit- ^ Rosser, Michael; Wiseman, Andreas (18 March 2014). "'Live action' Bananaman planned". Screendaily.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024.
- ^ Rosser, Michael. "'Live action' Bananaman planned | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-1-4766-6599-3.
- ^ Rowney, Jo-Anne (27 October 2017). "Bananaman is back - the Man-of-Peel returns in live action debut". The Mirror. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017.
- ^ Kamen, Matt (13 January 2016). "Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 13 May 2017.
- ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 3 October 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 3 October 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
- ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 11 November 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 11 November 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
- ^ "Bananaman: Mystery at the Old Mine". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 4 October 1984. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
- ^ "Bananaman: The Night Patrol". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 19 December 1984. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018.
- ^ "Bananaman: Operational Total". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
- ^ Murray, Chris (15 March 2017). The British Superhero. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0740-3. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via Google Books.
